Police Fire Rubber Bullets, Wound 15, in Outpost Destruction

Hundreds of security forces fired rubber bullets and wounded 15 civilians while destroying a home and tent at an outpost on Jewish-owned land.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 2/28/2011, 9:11 AM / Last Update: 2/28/2011, 9:23 AM

Flash 90

Hundreds of security forces wounded 15 civilians, most of them by rubber bullets, early Monday morning after police pounced on the Gilad Farm (Chavat Gilad) outpost while using two bulldozers to destroy an ”illegal” home, a second home that was almost completely built and a third one under construction. A tent also was demolished.

Residents of the community, located in Samaria near Kedumim, tried to resist the destruction, and clashes broke out, escalating to the point that special police forces used rubber bullets and tear gas, generally employed at mass riots. The police denied they used rubber bullets and claimed that they employed paintball guns to against stone throwers.

The Women in Green and Committees for Judea Action issued a protest statement on the use of rubber bullets. “Bibi, the injuries are your responsibility. Stop hiding behind Barak," they said, referring to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The government has targeted Gilad Farm dozens of times the past several years, although it is on private property owned by the Zar family, who named the farm after their son Gilad, murdered by Arab terrorists in a shooting attack several years ago.

Zar’s son Etai was among eight people who were arrested in Monday morning’s police raid.

The community is considered illegal by the government “because Barak has not signed the papers approving construction,” David HaIvri, director of the Shomron (Samaria) Liaison Council, told Israel National News.

He added he does not understand how authorities determine which home to destroy. Gilad Farm residents have pointed out several times that the government does not raze hundreds of illegally built Arab homes in the immediate area.

The Israel Electric Company has not provided the community with a hook-up for electricity, and the farm’s 28 families depend on an expensive diesel-fueled generator - and are often forced to remain without electricity during the winter nights.

Gilad Farm also has been the target of Arab terrorists, leftists and anarchists, who have torched the farm’s fields and attacked residents with firebombs.